Dems use 'Fast and Furious' debate to push tighter gun laws

WILL TUCKER, WASHINGTON BUREAU |
June 30, 2011

WASHINGTON — Democrats on Capitol Hill called for tougher gun laws Thursday as a way of cracking down on weapons purchased in the U.S. and trafficked to Mexican drug cartels.

The call for restrictions on such purchases came at a forum Democrats held as a counter to Republicans' laser-like focus on Operation Fast and Furious, in which agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives watched cartel-connected gun buyers in hopes of following the trail to cartel higher-ups.

But the weapons - purchased in gun stores in and around Phoenix - got away from ATF surveillance and eventually reached Mexican cartels. Two of them were recovered in December at the site in Southern Arizona where smugglers killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Discussion of Fast and Furious has become a bitter back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hammered the ATF's parent Justice Department over Fast and Furious at a June 15 hearing, saying the bureau shouldn't have permitted the guns to be sent to Mexico.

Seeking to change laws

Democrats fired back on Thursday at their forum, proclaiming the need for changes in gun laws to help law enforcement and the ATF prevent U.S.-purchased guns from getting to Mexico.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md. - senior Democrat government reform committee - Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Eleanor Holmes Norton, who serves as a non-voting delegate from the District of Columbia, questioned a panel of gun law experts and released a report titled "Outgunned," which concluded law enforcement officers don't have the tools they need to curb Mexico-bound gun trafficking.

"We had asked for a day of hearings and haven't gotten a response yet, so we went ahead and proceeded with our own forum," Cummings said.

Becca Watkins, press secretary for the committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said that Cummings' timing for the forum - while the House is in recess and representatives are back in their districts - and the forum itself are distractions from the focus on Fast and Furious.

"Cummings, for the entirety of this investigation, has worked to obstruct our investigation into Operation Fast and Furious," she said. "When he holds a hearing about gun control, it underscores that for us."

According to the report "Outgunned," Issa "interrupted" Democrats at the June 15 hearing and objected to any suggestions for changing federal firearms laws.

"The chairman does a very good job of making sure our hearings stay on topics," Watkins said.

Maloney noted that in the June 15 hearing, ATF agent Peter Forcelli testified that in his opinion, Operation Fast and Furious was a partial consequence of the lack of statutory tools prosecutors have to target gun traffickers.

Proposed penalties

Cummings said that he and Maloney will introduce legislation this week targeting the problems outlined in his report.

One proposal would mandate harsher penalties for "straw purchasing," which involves individuals lying on ATF paperwork that they are buying guns for themselves when, in fact, they are purchasing them for other people. On June 15, Forcelli likened the current punishment for straw purchasing - probation - to driving 65 miles per hour in a 55 zone.

Other proposals in the report include the enactment of a federal statute defining "gun trafficking" as a crime and requiring for the first time reports of multiple purchases of assault-type rifles in a short period of time.

Watkins said that though she hadn't seen the discussion at the Democratic forum, the majority believes gun control issues simply aren't relevant to the investigation of Fast and Furious.